The present invention relates generally to magnetic disk drives, and more particularly to a magnetic disk drive which comprises a disk cartridge and a driving device. The term "a disk cartridge", as used herein, means an apparatus which comprises at least a disk and a head in a sealed case, but has no current supply source to drive them and has no controller to control them. The term "a driving device", as used herein, means an apparatus which has the current supply source and/or the controller. The disk cartridge can be easily connected to and disconnected from the driving device. The driving device may be connected to an external computer, such as a host computer, and the disk cartridge can be driven and controlled by the driving device and/or the external computer. Therefore the disk cartridge may be considered as being an easily exchangable hard disk.
Among magnetic disk drives, hard disk drives have been used as memory means for computers. Hard disks have been more improved than so-called floppy disks in TPI (track per inch) and BPI (bit per inch) so that the hard fixed in a sealed-up housing to prevent dust from the outside attaching itself thereon so that it can be recorded with high density.
Consequently, information recorded on the hard disk cannot be used generally except with a computer which includes the hard disk drive. And when the hard disk is overflown, as the disk cannot be easily exchanged, it is troublesome to exchange the hard disk drive itself.
Accordingly, this applicant has developed a disk drive comprising a disk cartridge and the driving device mentioned above. The connection and disconnection between the disk cartridge and the driving device are achieved by connectors. But, since the disk cartridge is portable, if the connector of the disk cartridge is always uncovered, the connector pins thereof could suffer damage. On the other hand, the connector should be uncovered when the disk cartridge is connected to the driving device.